


Homecoming

by Immicolia



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-06
Updated: 2011-11-06
Packaged: 2017-10-25 18:04:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/273194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immicolia/pseuds/Immicolia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Edward escapes again, this time to try and make amends.  However clumsy that attempt may be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the T&B anonmeme on LJ.

Ivan comes home late one night, exhausted and a little headachy, to find Edward sitting in his apartment and looking very much like he owns the place. The sight enough to cause his breath to catch in his throat and he gives his head a vague sort of shake while Edward smiles, although not quite in that same sharklike way he had the last time they were face to face. Instead it's a little sad, almost sheepish, while Ivan tries to catch his tongue enough to speak.

"How? What are you doing.... You're supposed to...."

"Look, I know. I...." Edward gives a tight little shrug, clearly at a loss to explain himself.

"You what? You're out to get yourself killed? You want to finish the job with killing me? What, Edward? What is so important that you escaped from jail... _again_?"

Edward stays quiet. His shoulders hunched a little as if he's trying to vanish into his jacket. Heaving a small sigh after a moment and quite obviously struggling with what to say and Ivan ultimately shakes his head when no explanation seems forthcoming.

"I have to turn you in, Edward. I can't... I can't just pretend I never saw you. And you can't keep running like this. Why?..."

"I know!" Edward finally snaps, pinning Ivan under an irritated glower. "I know, okay? Just... give me a minute."

"For what?"

"To figure out what I need to say to you. I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to hate you. I don't... I don't want to go back, but I don't want to spend my life running either."

"Then you have to go back."

"You think I don't know that? It's easy to say, but do you have any idea what happens to someone like me in there? Someone who was all set to become a Hero, the sort of person who would have made a career out of putting criminals in places like that. Do you know what they did to me?"

"Edward...."

"It wasn't pretty. And I don't know if I can face it again."

For a moment Edward's face crumples into a stricken expression, one that Ivan remembers clearly from That Day. That day and that moment when everything fell apart in the crack of a gunshot and they both knew it.

"All I could do in there was hate you, it was the only thing keeping me alive. Knowing that you were living the life I should have had and wanting you dead."

"So that's what you want?"

"I don't know what I want anymore." Edward flashes a smile that is far closer to a grimace than anything. "I want to wrap my hands around your neck and squeeze just as much as I want to say I'm sorry. And the sick thing is you'd be fine with either of those, wouldn't you?"

Ivan says nothing, his shoulders moving in a jerky sort of shrug and the silence that follows is tense and awkward. Edward soon enough biting out a quick curse and jerking to his feet. Muttering, "You're right, I shouldn't be here. I'll go before I get you in shit."

Logically Ivan knows it's the best thing, the proper thing. Let Edward go and hope he does what's right and turn himself in again. These are all things that are self-evident. Basic common sense. The right thing to do.

He can't explain why he reaches out and wraps his fingers around Edward's wrist. Why he tugs Edward back towards him, his voice a hoarse whisper when he says, "Don't go. Not like this." Not flinching at the vicious glower Edward pins him under and the snap of, "Make up your goddamn mind, Ivan." He simply presses his lips to Edward's and remembers the way things were.

For one quiet moment Edward leans into the contact, a bittersweet tangle of the familiar and the foreign where Ivan finds himself remembering what it was like to slide his fingers through Edward's hair and how odd it is that he can't do that anymore. And even if Edward still tastes the same he doesn't quite feel the same, his muscles tense as if he's constantly on the edge of flight or fight. The whole thing feeling odd and sideways as Edward's teeth sink into his lip, drawing a slight yelp that makes Edward flash a predatory sort of smile.

"A part of me still wants to wring your neck. Even like this."

"You can. If you want to."

Edward's only response is a growl that sounds a little bit like "idiot," his hands roughly tugging at Ivan's clothing. Alternating between kisses and bites every time his mouth touches Ivan's skin.

They don't quite make it back to the couch. The pair of them crumpling into an awkward sort of heap on the floor and if Edward is a little bit rougher than he was once upon a time Ivan barely notices. It's an odd sort of homecoming that had been simmering from the moment they found themselves face to face again.

And there is a moment when they're both on the edge, sweat-slick and tangled together and barely able to breathe, when Ivan thinks that Edward might have choked out, "I missed you." The words, "I missed you too," on the tip of his tongue when everything fades into a haze of heat and want. Stars dancing behind closed eyelids as Edward's hand on his cock pushes him those last few steps towards oblivion.

Ivan's not sure how much time passes. It feels like moments but it could be hours before Edward's lips brush against his shoulder and he whispers, "You're still right about the fact that I can't stay."

"I know."

Ivan tries not to shiver at the cool air that slides over his skin when Edward ultimately slips away again.


End file.
